Guinguette by the Seine
Author | Georges Simenon |
---|---|
Original title | (Fr.) La Guinguette a deux sous |
Country | Belgium |
Language | French |
Series | Inspector Jules Maigret |
Genre | Detective fiction |
Publisher | A. Fayard |
Publication date | 1931 |
Media type | |
Preceded by | Maigret at the Gai-Moulin |
Followed by | The Shadow in the Courtyard |
Guinguette by the Seine (Fr. La Guinguette a deux sous, "the Tuppenny Bar") is a detective novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon, featuring his character Inspector Jules Maigret.
Plot summary
While visiting a condemned man in prison, he comments to Maigret that he knows someone at a "guinguette a deux sous" (a "tuppenny bar") who is equally deserving of the death penalty. Lenoir further reveals that he and an accomplice had witnessed a man whom they knew from the bar take a body and dump it in the Canal Saint-Martin. Maigret is unable to find this tuppenny bar, but later he chances to overhear a man mention it; following him, Maigret discovers he is M. Basso, a businessman, married and with a mistress, who leads him to a party at an inn on the Seine at Morsang. Mingling with the crowd, Maigret is invited to join the party by James, an English bank clerk, and discovers they meet regularly there at weekends. Now part of the set, Maigret returns the following week, where one of the men, Feinstein, is shot dead by Basso after an altercation. Now Maigret has two deaths to investigate; he also uncovers blackmail, murder, adultery and financial irregularities in the gay social set before unmasking the murderer.[1][2]
Maigret's method
Simenon describes Maigret's view of the turning point in an investigation; where it goes from a frustrating search for any lead at all, to the point where they start to come thick and fast.
He also describes an investigation as a matter of painstaking labour and good luck; how after instigating a county-wide search for a suspect, he was eventually found when an off-duty policeman became suspicious of an old woman buying 22f worth of ham, far more than she would need for herself.[3]
Other titles
The book has been translated twice into English: In 1940, by Geoffrey Sainsbury (and reprinted variously as "Maigret to the Rescue", "A Spot by the Seine", and "Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine") and in 2003 by David Watson as "The Bar on the Seine" (reprinted in 2015 as "The Two-Penny Bar").[4]
Adaptations
The story has been dramatized twice; in 1962 as The Wedding Guest (with Rupert Davies in the main role), and in 1975 as La Guinguette a deux sous (Jean Richard).[5]
Notes
References
- Georges Simenon The Bar by the Seine (1931; translated G Sainsbury, reprinted 2003) Penguin Classics, London ISBN 978-0-141-18733-4
External links
- Maigret at trussel.com
- v
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novels
- The Strange Case of Peter the Lett (1931)
- The Crime at Lock 14 (1931)
- The Death of Monsieur Gallet (1931)
- The Crime of Inspector Maigret (1931)
- A Battle of Nerves (1931)
- Maigret and the Yellow Dog (1931)
- Maigret at the Crossroads (1931)
- The Sailors' Rendezvous (1931)
- Maigret at the Gai-Moulin (1931)
- Guinguette by the Seine (1931)
- The Shadow in the Courtyard (1932)
- Maigret Goes Home (1932)
- The Flemish Shop (1932)
- Death of a Harbour Master (1932)
- The Madman of Bergerac (1932)
- Maigret in Exile (1940)
- Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942)
- Maigret and the Spinster (1942)
- To Any Lengths (1944)
- Maigret and the Toy Village (1944)
- Maigret in Retirement (1947)
- Maigret in New York (1947)
- A Summer Holiday (1948)
- Maigret's Dead Man (1948)
- Maigret's First Case (1948)
- My Friend Maigret (1949)
- Maigret and the Coroner (1949)
- Maigret and the Old Lady (1950)
- Madame Maigret's Own Case (1950)
- Maigret's Memoirs (1950)
- Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper (1950)
- Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951)
- Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters (1951)
- Maigret's Revolver (1952)
- Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard (1953)
- Maigret's Mistake (1953)
- Maigret Goes to School (1954)
- Maigret and the Headless Corpse (1955)
- Maigret Sets a Trap (1955)
- Maigret's Failure (1956)
- Maigret Has Scruples (1958)
- Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (1961)
- Maigret and the Saturday Caller (1962)
- Maigret and the Dosser (1963)
- Maigret on the Defensive (1964)
- The Patience of Maigret (1965)
- Maigret Hesitates (1968)
- Maigret and the Killer (1969)
- Maigret and the Mad Woman (1970)
- Maigret and the Loner (1971)
- Maigret and Monsieur Charles (1972)
- Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (1933)
- The Night Club (1933)
- Tropic Moon (1933)
- Chit of a Girl (1938)
- The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1938)
- Le Bourgmestre de Furnes (1939)
- The Strangers in the House (1940)
- Strange Inheritance (1941)
- La Veuve Couderc (1942)
- Young Cardinaud (1942)
- Act of Passion (1946)
- The Mahé Circle (1946)
- The Couple from Poitiers (1946)
- Pedigree (1948)
- The Bottom of the Bottle (1949)
- Belle (1952)
- Red Lights (1953)
- The Watchmaker of Everton (1954)
- The Little Man from Archangel (1956)
- The Cat (1967)
- The Man on the Bench in the Barn (1968)
- The Prison (1968)
- The Disappearance of Odile (1971)
- The Glass Cage (1971)
- The Man Who Wasn't Maigret (1992 biography)